hello - new to the forum

hi everyone
i am a 38 year old trich chick. i am also hoping to find a forum that is visited on a regular basis, and haven't found one yet. i think talking about it really helps keep me from pulling...so i am hoping to find a support person(s) here. i take prozac, which does help my depression, but does little for my OCD's, which i seem to be riddled with. asides from pulling my hair, i am an avid picker. my shrink, bless her heart, has tried so hard to break me of pulling, but we both know it will probably never happen. i did go for over a year without pulling, and my hair did grow in - most of it, anyway. as i always feared, enough damage has been done, i suppose, to keep some of it from growing back. but i caved as i always seem to do and i am currently back to wearing a hairpiece. i feel such shame and loathing for myself for caving after all i went through to get it to grow out.
anyone want to swap horror stories with me? i know there are tons of hair pullers out there, hence the forum and everything i have found on the web, but when you are a puller it feels like you are the only one on the planet. tell me i'm not alone!!
thanks
crazychick

oh, come on! i can't be the only puller out there with time on my hands!

I am a puller. I only found out today that there was a name for it. My son's have lovingly teased me about it for years. I have some OCD also. We just wouldn't be human if it weren't for all these fun things. I also have some hellacious post traumatic stress going on. I was there when my son was murdered 8 mos. ago. There's a gift that keeps giving. I don't feel like a freak, I feel normal???lol Good luck to you.

I'm a trichster too, have been since my early teens. I have to wear a hat, headscarf or wig; partly to cover it, partly because when my hair is exposed, I can't control the urges.

I'm not gonna go into it any further cuz I don't know if you're still here or not

Hi! I'm new too, but I have been been pulling for a while now. I don't do it to the extent that I have bald patches but the parting in my hair has thinned noticably since the beginning of this year (which is around the time I started pulling.) One of my friends really understands it (she has a disorder which is basically a phobia of herself or anyone being sick) it consumes her in a similar way to how this has consumed me. I pull self consiously and normally realise what I'm doing after I've pulled. I managed to stop for about three weeks, but had a relapse. I know I its an anxiety thing, things can be stressful at home at the moment and I am under a lot of pressure at school. I'm glad to have found somewhere where there are other pullers, people don't seem to understand that I can't help it!

Hi. I pull my hair too. I also didn't know there was a term/label for it until recently. It started when I was about13 and in the beginning was really bad. I had a receded frontal hairline from pulling all my hair out and no eyebrows or eyelashes. I somehow stopped doing it, but I can't remember why.
I'm in my 30's now and still pull but not to the extent of having bald patches. My hair is just really thin.
One thing that I have done obsessively for the past few years and I didn't even realise until an ex-partner pointed it out is; I twist my hair into knots all over my head, then unravel them. This process I can be repeating for hours. That sounds like some kind of OCD. Does anybody else do that?
I'd like to stop doing it but there's no way I'd go and see my doctor about it. I've only just got medical clearance of a whole load of other issues and there's no way I'm going to have any thing down on my medical records again. In my line of work, I now have to disclose any mental health issues and I've only just managed to convince the docs that I'm not crazy anymore.. so I'm not going to start things off again for the sake of pullling my hair. I just wish I could stop doing it on my own without any medical assistance.

i am glad some people finally wrote in. for some reason, i have the hardest time getting response on this board.

if you can stop pulling without any medical help, please tell me how it is done. i've done it for so long now it is simply a part of my life. my shrink told me i would just have to learn to accept that i will always have it - like any addiction - i just have to learn how not to let it overpower me. big, brave words - but i have failed miserably at stopping. the longest i've gone is about two years. i'd like to switch from prozac to something else, but it would be a big thing to deal with and i have too much on my plate as it is. i combine meds with counseling - it's helped - but it won't cure it.

Hi Crazychick.
I really don't know of any ways to stop pulling, with or without medical help.
The thing with me is it's not a conscious decision to pull; you know like I don't think " I'll pull now my hair out now for a while...". It's a semi-conscious thing like when you tap your fingers or shred bits of paper. It's like I go into a trance whilst watching tv or reading a book and I'll suddenly 'wake up' and realise that I've been pulling for the past hour...
So I don't think behavioural techniques would work for something that I don't even realise I'm doing to begin with.
Some people have suggested that when you start to pull, to get up and go and do something else to distract yourself. Don't know if that would work...

I wish I could understand why we pull. I am a lawyer and in the middle of work my colleagues tap me because I look like a total idiot, lost in space, pulling my hair out. I also play with my hair, causing it to fall out. I only pull from one spot, but I love to play with the bumps in my ponytails as well, until they turn into knots. I pull the area in the front on the right, where I used to have a cowlick (now removed by me). I don't get it and I would love to stop. Sometimes I sit at my desk, willing myself not to pull and I feel like I'm going to jump out of my skin if I don't.

Hello there everyone

I have had trich for as long as i can remember now,at the moment i am not to bad the patches i can hide,and i dont have the urge quite as much.I just want to wish you all well in the fight against this.